Monthly Archives: April 2014

Post navigation

David Moyes has officially been sacked from Manchester United football club after only ten months. On 22nd April 8:30am the Manchester United official twitter feed announced that Moyes would be leaving the club saying, “the club would like to place on record its thanks for the hard work, honesty and integrity he brought to the role”. Due to the bad season United have had this did not come as a surprise to many. Personally, I feel sorry for him as he built up a solid ten year reputation at Everton football club and he finally makes it as manager to a ‘top’ club and then is sacked. This has debatably ruined his reputation, and has definitely tainted it. However it is fair to say that anybody following the footsteps of Sir Alex Ferguson (who managed United for an astounding twenty eight years) would struggle. Although Moyes was personally selected by Ferguson himself, he lost the vital support of United’s owners, the Glazer family. Simon Stone from BBC Sport said that, “the sacking of Moyes was inevitable after Sunday’s awful performance at Everton” where they lost 2-0.

It has been announced that former United player, Ryan Giggs will step in as acting manager for the last four games of the season. However whilst he has a vast knowledge of the club he has hardly any management experience whatsoever, so it will be interesting to see how the next few games pan out. Although because he has been managed by Ferguson he can draw upon advice he taught him as a player and use it for his managerial role.

There are many things the media have critiqued him on such as the dramatic fall in the league table for United. They have failed to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 1995. They will end their season with their lowest points total in Premier League history, and their home record this season is the worst it has been since 1978. At present they are seventh in the Premier League with four matches still to play, however this time last year they were first with eleven points ahead. They have also lost six league games at home.

Another mistake he made was not playing the same team all season. There have not been two games where the players on the pitch have been the same. He has not given time for the players to gel together and work as a team. There is little desire and passion for them to win. Related to this is the fact that the players he has bought he has been playing out of position, such as playing Mata on the right wing. It has been debated that he is trying to implement the same style he used with Everton for ten years, turning United into a standard mid-table team. On the other hand, the current playing squad are arguably the weakest it has been for many years.

He has made some bad transfer decisions too. He bought Marouane Fellaini for twenty seven and a half million when if they had acted quicker, could have bought him for four million less. This made officials lack confidence in him, they had to be sure he was the right person to make these decisions. With the mistakes he has made thus far he cannot be trusted to make the 100-150 million investment decisions over the summer.

However in my opinion he has been unlucky and been treated too harshly. United have not had a new manager in twenty eight years so they should have let Moyes settle and have more time to gel with the players and adapt to his new role. It is unfortunate that has been sacked. But it was always inevitable that the manager after Ferguson would always have been compared to him. Overall he should have been given more of a chance to prove how good of a manager he is.

Gareth Bale signed for Tottenham Hotspur football club in 2007 who originally paid seven million pounds for him. He then transferred to Spanish team, Real Madrid 1st September 2013 for a world record transfer fee of eighty five point three million. There is a debate as to whether he was worth that amount of money. For the first part of his season he was sat out or substituted originally due to a reoccurring thigh injury. However later on in the season he has really shown his true potential. Bale has demonstrated he is a world class player and a real game changer for Real Madrid.

On the 16th April, he scored the winning goal for Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey final, his 20th goal of the season, notably against their predominant rival, Barcelona. It is arguably his best goal of his career thus far. Real Madrid’s assistant coach Paul Clement said that, “I’m not sure I have ever seen a goal like that.” Before this match Bale had scored nineteen goals in thirty eight games. He proved in this moment that he was worth the vast amount he was bought for by the Spanish club.

Another example of a big money signing but in the Premier League involves the Spanish player, Fernando Torres, who is arguably one of the biggest flops. He left Liverpool for Chelsea in January 2011. He joined for a record British transfer fee of fifty million, making him the most expensive Spanish player thus far. Out of his ninety one appearances at Liverpool he scored sixty five goals in the league. This is contrasted to his career at Chelsea, where he was played seventy one times and he has scored only nineteen goals. This shows that a player’s success at one team does not guarantee a definite success at another team. This is due to confidence, injuries and whether they play to their strengths.

One of Manchester City’s biggest transfer flops was Robson de Souza also known as Robinho. He transferred to City 1st October 2008 from Real Madrid. He was transferred for thirty two million and a half, which at the time was the club’s second highest ever transfer, and was a British record for the most amount paid for a player. However he was not as successful as hoped because he only played forty one games for City, in two seasons. Robinho was then transferred to Milan for half the fee Manchester City had paid for him (sixteen million pounds).

On the other hand, twenty five year old Sergio Aguero who transferred to Manchester City from Athletico Madrid for thirty eight million has been a great success. He has been played in eighty two games, scoring a phenomenal fifty goals. He has also had fifteen assists, demonstrating that he can not only score goals but create goals, making him an all-round fantastic buy for City.

Due to Bale’s transfer money, Spurs have bought several players. However this has caused problems as the players have not gelled together or had time to settle in the club. For example Centre Forward, Roberto Soldado transferred from Valencia CF and was bought for twenty six million, four hundred thousand pounds. He has been a huge flop for Spurs. Soldado has recently had a hamstring injury. Out of the twenty seven games he has played for Spurs, he has scored only six goals. He has been brought on as a substitute five times and taken off on ten occasions.

Big money signings sometimes bring the team buying instant success however it is not always a guarantee. The risk involved is very high, however players such as Bale make it worth it.

With all the hype surrounding this new Disney film I wanted to see if it was as good as everybody was making it out to be. It definitely was! Directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, Frozen did not disappoint. The plot revolves around Queen Elsa who possesses a magical power where anything she touches has the ability to become frozen. The movie is about her overcoming this with trials and tribulations along the way. Her sister, Princess Anna as well as Kristoff, his reindeer Sven and a talking snowman named Olaf, travel to try and find her and to stop the eternal winter which surrounds them. This comedy and adventure has a strong cast of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, and Santino Fontana. The music in this movie is beautiful and some of the songs are even currently in the UK Top 40, such as ‘Let it Go’ which pop princess Demi Lovato has recently covered. Although this movie is aimed at children, adults would enjoy it also as it is a fun-filled adventure perfect for families. Frozen ultimately leaves a positive message that you can overcome problems you have if you have faith and you shouldn’t care what anybody else thinks, which children can take away with them. It reminded me a lot of the film Tangled with Disney’s modern animation. Overall, this film is really engaging and enchanting and you should definitely give it a watch! (That is if you haven’t already!)